In news:e7glrq02u5p@news3.newsguy.com,
Cardinal Chunder <cc@foo.no.spam.xyzabcfghllaa.com> typed:

Anyone with a few hours practice could have managed it. Flying an
airborne aircraft is not difficult. These guys even took some flight
lessons and had instruction manuals. It would have been relatively
straightforward to steer the aircraft and control its speed in the way
they did.

Of course I'm over generalising, because some people appear to believe
that simple hand / eye coordination is beyond anyone's capacity.

Well actually you have to rely on large amounts of technology to fly a
modern passenger jet. simple hand eye coordination plays very little part in
it. In fact in most modern aircraft there are no mechanical linkages between
the flight deck and the actual flight controls. everything is electronic.

This is why one is not allowed to use a mobile phone in an aircraft because
the spurious emissions from a mobile phone could potentially interfere with
electronic circuitry that controls the actual plane, so obviously presents a
safety hazard.

But the main reason why hand eye coordination isn't enough is because they
travel at high speed and require relatively large distances to manoeuvre.
Distances that exceed human perceptual capabilities.

In saying that however GPS technology is available on some mobile phones,
PDAs and laptop computers and I dare say aircraft also have such technology
on board. GPS would have made it relatively easy to navigate.
-- 
Amanda